2016 Republican convention

By the time you read this, I will be in Cleveland, about to cover my 15th presidential nominating convention, Democratic and Republican, over the past four decades.

This one promises to be an event unlike anything any of us have ever seen.

A bombastic developer of high-rise towers and casinos who has gone through cycles of boom-and-bust over and over again throughout his career, a man whose celebrity grew as the host of a reality TV show, suddenly decides last year to run for the Republican nomination for president.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was in Florence Friday detailing federal legislation to fight heroin and opioid abuse. In just a few days he'll be in Cleveland to speak at the Republican National Convention.

Politicians and reporters aren’t the only ones preparing for this summer’s Republican National Convention. Attorneys and judges expect to be busy that week, too, as they represent and process demonstrators who may be passing through local courtrooms.

Update: 1:29 p.m. Arena officials aren't saying how much the project could cost, nor are they laying out a timeline. Nederlander Entertainment CEO Ray Harris says funding talks are underway with Cincinnati, Hamilton County, and the Port Authority. "It's obviously got to be a private/public partnership and we're trying to figure that out with them," he says.

With the 2016 GOP national convention coming to Cleveland, could they end up nominating an Ohioan for president or vice president? Both Sen. Rob Portman and Gov. John Kasich are being talked about as possible contenders. WVXU politics reporter Howard Wilkinson talked about it this morning with Jay Hanselman.

An eight-member delegation of the Republican National Committee(RNC) toured Cincinnati today to see if the city might be a suitable location for the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Cincy2016, the local committee pushing for the convention, gave the group from the RNC a tour of US Bank Arena, the proposed venue for the convention; the Cincinnati Convention Center, and downtown hotels.

In this week's Monday morning politics chat, Howard Wilkinson talks with Maryanne Zeleznik about John Boehner actually spending money in his 8th Congressional District Republican primary and Cincinnati's chances of landing the 2016 Republican National Convention.

It means that if your ball is on the green, a long way from the cup, you have to swing your putter with an extra “oomph” to get the ball somewhere close to the hole. That way, if you don’t sink it, you have an easy tap-in putt.

WVXU political reporter Howard Wilkinson talks with Maryanne Zeleznik about the chances of the 2016 Republican National Convention coming to Cincinnati, Rand Paul's support in the CPAC straw poll and how Paul will help the local GOP raise money in May.